Chess Prodigy: 9-Year-Old Indian Holds Magnus Carlsen to Draw in Online Tournament

Nine-year-old Indian Aarit Kapil achieved a remarkable draw against world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the 'Early Titled Tuesday' online chess tournament.Aarit, who recently finished as runner-up in the Under-9 National Championship, dominated the game against the five-time world champion and had Carlsen in a losing position.Time pressure ultimately prevented the young Indian from converting his advantage, leading to a draw in a rook versus two minor pieces endgame.The Delhi boy participated in the event from Georgia, where he is currently competing in the under-10 World Championship.He has won his first two rounds and will continue with his third game on Wednesday.Indian player V Pranav won the 'Early Titled Tuesday' tournament with 10 points out of 11.American Grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann and Carlsen tied with 9.5 points, with Niemann claiming second place on tiebreak.Magnus Carlsen has recently reached a historic 2900 rating in freestyle chess, a milestone never achieved before in any format.Carlsen, who has held the world number one position for nearly 15 years, previously reached his peak classical chess rating of 2882 in May 2014.The new freestyle chess ratings are now managed by Freestyle Chess organisation, separate from FIDE, the global chess governing body."My wife (Ella Victoria) is way more attracted to me now that I've achieved 2900," Carlsen told Freestyle Chess, joking after learning about his rating.The freestyle ratings calculation included five tournaments: Weissenhaus 2024, Singapore 2024, Weissenhaus 2025, Paris 2025, and Karlsruhe 2025, covering 578 players who competed in at least one event over two years.Indian chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa ranks fourth with 2773 points, following Carlsen (2909), Hikaru Nakamura (2818), and Fabiano Caruana (2804).